When Faculty Are Fired

Two prominent cases that burst into public this week illustrate what universities don't do: reflect on the larger scope of the failure

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Image credit: BAUSCHRON/Wikimedia Commons

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There are two stories about academic life in the news this week, both of which point to one question: why are universities so ill-managed when it comes to their academic mission?

The first, and most sobering because it involves a friend, is the University of Colorado-Boulder’s decision to remove historian Patricia Nelson Limerick as faculty director of the Center of the American West, which she has directed since she co-founded it in 1986. While Limerick, 71, keeps her job as a tenured professor, New York University’s adjunct organic chemistry professor Maitland Jones, Jr., is not so lucky. He is 84 and came out of retirement to teach the intro to organic chemistry course, from which he has now been terminated. Allegedly, he was fired because of students complained about the high rate of failure in the course.

I will take an aggressively neutral stance on whether any of these moves had merit because I don’t know. I have been privy to many personnel decisions in my life as a faculty member, and believe me, the narrative that appears in the media is usually inaccurate on both sides. So, I am well aware that there are many things we don’t know, that the people involved see them differently, and that what leads to the trauma of dismissal is often hard to parse as an outsider. Nevertheless, each instance reveals one facet of endemically poor university management. In addition, they illustrate the decline of communication with university communities by management.

But here are questions that ought to be front and center. Shouldn’t firing someone be the last resort? And when that last resort is reached, shouldn't the university reflect publicly on what might have been different?

First, what can we learn from the case of Professor Limerick, who has always seemed like a kind, funny, and good-hearted person? I don’t know her well, but she is well-loved by everyone we know in common. And she has a wacky sense of humor that stands out in an often stuffy profession. As chair of an American Historical Association committee, she once delivered an entire report at the Annual Meeting in limericks. Patty, as friends call her, is undoubtedly shattered at seeing a big piece of her life’s work ripped away in such a publicly humiliating manner. Initial reports suggest “staff complaints”—possibly about a work environment where the professional and personal realms became confused. My old blog pal Timothy Burke addresses how common this can be on a university campus in his Substack, Eight By Seven. Hard agree, Tim.

But I would also argue that irregular or deteriorating work conditions can evolve and fester when a university administration neglects its oversight role. Under such conditions, a faculty member who has established and raised money for a project over decades can fuse their identity with the job. But, unfortunately, sometimes these charismatic figures presume that others—secretaries, graduate students, board members—are equally identified. And they sometimes stop listening.

To think beyond this one instance: This is the general problem with institutes and centers. Yes, they can be essential nodes of intellectual thought on campus and create interdisciplinary spaces for work that departments won’t support—or of which departments actively disapprove. But, for the centers and institutes, they are also an excellent way to fundraise when the humanities fail to make a good case for themselves, as they currently are. Centers and institutes establish coherent, long-term projects that appeal to theme-driven donors and foundations.